Changes Happen, A long chronicle of the Care Bears
by Alexander-Crossover
Summary: Changes Happen and the Care Bears must now embark on their most dangerous missions yet, and with that mission comes a whole slew of changes to their lives. Some changes are good, while others very dreadful...
1. A Tought Decision

**Changes Happen**

Chapter 1: A Difficult Decision

"_Another unsuccessful summit at the united nations left people with a great feeling of unease today, more and more it appears that the leaders of today's modern superpowers are gearing towards a war, possibly a nuclear war. But people still have their finger crossed that what is being termed 'the modern cold war' will end without anything like that, but as the threats pile up that hope seems fainter and fainter each day…"_

True Heart shut the broadcast off and sighed, it was just as she and Noble Heart had feared and things were looking grim. This meeting of the entire Care Bear family was the first time in months that they had all been in the same place at the same time. In fact, many of them greeted each other like long lost friends as most of their caring missions had been solo recently owing to the widespread need for them in recent months. The only member of the family who didn't seem to be too down about everything was Bedtime Bear, partly because he was adjusting his sleeping pattern for the days temporarily but mostly is was because it was the first time in years that he'd been able to see the entire family in one place and able to interact with them, as he normally slept through the day so he could be awake at night.

Everyone was saddened by the report on television but it came as no surprise to them, for some time now they had been observing the rising tensions of the world but had stayed out of it as it was not their business to interfere. But now, the very real threat of a nuclear war was a major concern since it would mean the end of most civilized society, and probably the end of them if things continued as they were. The number of caring missions had been consistently high for the last few months, reminiscent of the rare extremely busy days they had had in the past. Yesterday, the Caring Meter had finally given out owing to a lack of maintenance, as no one had been able to fix it for a long time and rather than go to fix it, Noble Heart and True Heart had decided to call this meeting and now they sat, having just seen the report, all of them fatigued ranging from drowsy to completely exhausted. True Heart and Noble Heart looked at each other and stood up to face their family, not looking forwards to the announcement they were about to make.

"Care Bears, Care Bear Cousins, we are facing a crisis we may not be able to deal with," True Heart said.

"If the tension of the world continues as it is, we believe nuclear war is inevitable on earth. If this happens then we will…" Noble Heart trailed off, but everyone knew what he meant.

True Heart sighed again as she took over, "Care Bear Family, we are facing a very difficult decision: either we focus on leaving or hiding to avoid a nuclear holocaust, or we try to solve the world's problems and achieve world peace." The first option felt like impossibility for them because they couldn't just abandon earth, but the second seemed like it would be an un-accomplishable task. They primarily dealt with children who were open minded while most adults found it absurd to even talk to small multi colored animals; while it was mainly a stereotype, it was the close mindedness of politicians that was the problem to begin with which made their options limited.

"Does anyone have any ideas about how we could possibly solve our problem?" Noble Heart asked, imploringly. After about a minute, a very tired Bright Heart raised his hand and forced himself to stand, yawning deeply before speaking.

"I do have an idea," he said, "over a year ago Grumpy and I were working on something that might help. We were observing a small anomaly at the edge of the solar system and found out it was a wormhole, a shortcut to a distant system."

"How does this help us?" An irritated, and now grown up, Tugs said, before his twin sister Hugs pulled him back into a seated position and gave him a nasty glare.

"Go on Bright Heart," Hugs said.

"Thanks you, Hugs, I will. Now we've been observing the behavior of human adults both past and present and we've found that humans are drawn to both conflict and exploration. I know what you're going to tell me, this isn't star trek, but as much as that isn't true at the very least if humans were interested in exploring then maybe it might help smooth things over."

Grumpy took over at this point, "We managed to draw up the plans for devices that will allow us to use the wormhole at the edge of our system, and others like it, to open up the galaxy to explore. It's a long shot, but it's all we've got." The whole room was abuzz with muttering and debating on this revelation. The two founders gave everyone several minutes to debate this before they called everyone to quiet down and Noble Heart spoke up again.

"Bright Heart, how soon could you put something like this together?"

"I need a couple weeks working with Grumpy to do this, and even then we only have enough resources for a prototype and we wouldn't be able to test this in anything more than simulations," the raccoon admitted.

"Well you're right about it being a long shot," True Heart admitted, "but it is the only chance we have really," she sighed, feeling her drowsiness settling in.

"All right," Noble Heart said, "the next summit of the United Nations is in three weeks, with any luck the world will stable enough for us to try and settle this and calm everyone down. I know you're all tired so instead of sending out everyone to go on caring missions right away, we're all taking the next two days off to rejuvenate ourselves." The founder turned his head towards Bright Heart and Grumpy, "as for you two, you and anyone who might be able to help are relieved from caring mission duty until then, we need to get this idea working, if it works we may just be able to calm the planet down, if not, it won't matter. Now everyone go get some sleep, even you Bedtime, we'll all need it if we want to succeed at this."


	2. Preparations and Emotions

Chapter 2: Preparations and Emotions

_Observational data, The Care Bear Family: The Care Bear family is a collection of multicolored animals, mostly bears, who are often seen helping children to open up and share their feelings. For the most part the Care Bears have been helping children and not trying to harm them in anyways so they are left alone for the most part as there has not been any record of any mistreatment towards children from them. The Care Bear's anatomy appears to be very similar to humans, at least from what has been observed, the "bears" of the family all appear to be between 4 feet and 4 feet 6 inches while the "cousins", who are members of the family but not actual bears, range between 3 feet 6 inches and 5 feet, depending on species. The greater specifics of their anatomy are unknown as they are always seen wearing clothes when they are on earth, whether they do in their own realm is unknown, but they appear to possess the same reproductive organs as humans, however this is only data observed from afar so more specifics are unknown._

While the two days of rest and recuperation were exactly what the Care Bears and Cousins needed, it seemed to be over too soon and once the Caring Meter was properly fixed, they were back at it again, running mostly solo missions to help the children of the world. Except this time, Grumpy and Bright Heart were staying behind in their workshop, both of them working as hard as they could to get their project and technology working before the deadline of the next conference, and what could possibly their only chance to get the world to peace, unless the tensions snapped before the conference, but they all hoped against hope they at least had the three weeks to get things done.

Grumpy and Bright Heart were making good progress, some of the materials they needed were almost impossible to get but they managed, able to conjure up facsimiles of some of their required materials from their tummy symbols with the help of a couple other CBF members, albeit at the expense of their energy as the more complex the item they created, the more energy it took, but progress proceeded as quickly as possible and they seemed to believe that their two brainchildren, which had been named the Jump Drive, and Jump Buoy, would be finished in time, and hopefully enough to appeal to the exploratory desires of humanity to calm the squabbling politicians down.

Two weeks had passed and down on earth, Take Care Bear, the doctor to the Care Bear Family, was on a caring mission. Normally the doctor wasn't required to take part in missions but the incredible demand for them meant that he had taken on the duties he normally didn't. He knew how to help kids with their problems. Today's assignment was proving to be a major problem as the young boy he was trying to help was being very close-minded and was refusing to share his feelings. Take Care was getting exasperated and put his hand to his tan furred forehead, feeling the start of a headache coming on.

A pair of eyes watched Take Care from nearby, hiding in an alleyway and observing.

"He's a Care Bear like me, and he's getting exasperated, and that boy, he acts angry but he's so scared and sad, I must be able to help them."

"I'm trying to help," Take Care said to the young boy.

"Well I don't need your help," the kid snapped, "I'm just fine."

"No you're not," the soft spoken female voice caused Take Care to round and saw a dark brown female care bear, wearing a t-shirt and a skirt. Take Care noticed her eyes were a dark blue and had to ask.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Emily, I'm an orphan and I guess I'm a Care Bear. I've heard of your family and I knew I was one of you but I never got in contact, what is your name?"

Take Care was a bit surprised he had not given his name at first so he spoke up, "My name is Take Care Bear, I'm the doctor for the Care Bear Family and I could use your help with this case."

"You're a doctor," the boy asked skeptically.

"Yes, he is," Emily said, "and you're hiding your feelings from us," she added, "you're not really angry, you're sad and scared." Both Take Care and the boy stared at Emily in amazement.

"How can you know that," the boy asked.

"It doesn't matter," Emily said, "please tell my why you're scared."

"Well," the boy's eyes teared a bit and he spoke, "my dad's in the hospital cause he had a heart attack, and I'm scared he won't come back."

"Then why don't you go see him?" Emily asked. The boy didn't respond but Emily said, "He's scared, probably doesn't want to see his father like that." The boy nodded as she spoke.

"Listen to me," Take Care said, walking up to and kneeling beside the boy, "I'm a doctor and I've had to help the people in my family with various problems, but I do know that the best thing you can do is be with them."

"Really," the boy asked.

"Yes, you can trust me, now you can go the next time right."

The boy smiled, "Yes I can," he dried his eyes, got up, and walked into his house. Take Care sighed, another hour's work done, but now for he wanted to get to know this new bear better.

"Emily, how did you know how he was feeling?" Take Care asked the new bear.

"Well," she fidgeted, "I've kind of always been able to tell how another feels. Someone I met told me I was an empath." Emily blushed slightly while Take Care mulled this over.

"Emily, you'd better come with me, I bet the rest of the Care Bears will want to meet you," he said, conjuring up a cloud car, and shutting off the caring beeper in his pocket.

"Really?" she asked.

"Of course, not only are we willing to accept anyone into our family, but your ability might really help us soon," he said, taking her hand and helping her into the car.

On the ride up, Emily looked over at Take Care and asked, "How did you become a doctor, Take Care?"

"Well, it was mostly out of necessity. When I was a cub I used to play 'doctor' with the other care bear cubs, and after we had to send some of our injured and sick members down to earth, it was decided that one of us would need a medical training to deal with possible future problems. I'd been interested in the profession for a while so I applied at a medical university and I returned about eight years later with my full degree and became a full time doctor for the family."

"Do you have a psychiatrist or counselor there?" Emily asked.

"Are you volunteering for the position?" Take Care asked.

Emily blushed slightly, "Maybe."

"Well here we are," Take Care said, as he pulled in to the landing strip, "welcome to the Kingdom of Caring." Emily was amazed by the place she was in, buildings, plants, and a giant heart shaped structure all supported by clouds, she wasn't sure what to think.

"Follow me, we're going to have to set up a meeting soon to introduce you to everyone, and tell them what you can do."

Word spread rather quickly about the new Care Bear as those who returned to the Kingdom of Caring for refueling, for their vehicles or for themselves, stayed slowly gathering for another meeting and by the end of the day they were all gathered for another meeting in the Hall of Hearts.

Emily was unable to make her blush fade as she sat at the head of the table between the two founders with Take Care, she wasn't used to the spotlight and she could feel the eyes of the room all focusing on her. Once everyone was gathered, True Heart banged her gavel to get quiet and stood up.

"Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins, I believe Take Care Bear has something to tell us," True Heart turned to the doctor who stood up, thanking the founder before he spoke.

"Thank you, True Heart. Today on one of my missions I met a new member of my family," he looked down at Emily, who was now blushing even more furiously than before, "her name is Emily and she has an incredible gift, Emily would you care to explain." Emily stood up shakily and everyone could see how shy and nervous she was to be standing up in front of them. Emily took several deep breaths before she could speak properly.

"Hello," she said, her voice was soft but in the quiet of the meeting hall it carried so that everyone heard her, "my name is Emily, and I'm an empath, I can sense the emotions of anyone I've seen recently no matter how they try to hide it. I can feel that some of you are skeptical," she said, looking down, nervous as she ever had been.

"She's telling the truth," Take Care said, backing her up, "she was able to tell that the angry boy I was helping was actually sad and scared about his father being in the hospital. I can assure you she's telling the truth." Emily smiled at him, Take Care was being a big help to her right now. "I think Emily would make a great addition to the Care Bear Family, what about the rest of you?" Take Care asked the room. Emily could feel some uncertainty in the room, but she could feel that they were willing to accept her even before Tenderheart voiced his opinion.

"I can't speak for the rest of the family, but I would like Emily to join our family, I think she will be a great addition to the Care Bear Family."

"I second the motion sports fans," Champ said standing up and most of the others soon followed them. True Heart banged her gavel to calm everyone down before Noble Heart stood up.

"It's decided, Emily will join the Care Bear Family. Now we just need a name for her." Emily was confused until Take Care spoke up.

"Each of us has a name that corresponds with our duties or abilities, like how my name is Take Care because I help to take care of the rest of the family medically."

"I see," she said and Take Care spoke up again.

"I think her name should be Empathy Bear because of her ability, I think it suits her but if she thinks there's a better option…"

"No, I like it, it fits," Emily said, he blush fading somewhat

"Then it's settled," True Heart said, "Tenderheart why don't you give her a tummy symbol."

"It would be my pleasure," Tenderheart stood up and sent out a glowing white emblem that flew over to and around Empathy causing a symbol to glow on her tummy. However the white image kept fluctuating for a while and for a moment everyone thought something was wrong, but then her symbol appeared, a smiling star.

"Thank you," Empathy said, sitting down, "I don't know what to say."

"Well you already said thank you, I think that's enough for now," Take Care said, "welcome to the family, Emily."

"Right, now if you'll forgive me," Noble Heart said, "as long as we're here we need to talk about the UN summit at the end of the week, primarily who's going to go."

"What are you talking about?" Empathy asked, the expression of her tummy symbol shifting to one of confusion.

"I'll tell you about it at the end, but this is important," Take Care said. Empathy nodded,

Bright Heart was the next to stand up and speak, "Grumpy and I will have to go since we're the only ones who know how our Jump Drive and Buoy work and since you two are our leaders, Noble Heart and True Heart, you should come with us, since the politicians will see it as a meaningful gesture if you're there, and it might increase our chances of being taken seriously."

"That makes sense," True Heart said, "is there anyone else who thinks they should go with us."

"I think Empathy should go," Take Care said, surprising every one but continued, "Empathy Bear can sense the emotions of others and I think she'll be a great help if she can tell us what the others are thinking, it will help use know who we have to convince when we're there." He looked down at the newest member of the Care Bear Family both her face and her symbol's face blushing with embarrassment and nervousness, "do you think you'll be able to go?" Take Care asked.

"Yes, but only if you'll come too, Take Care Bear," Empathy replied.

"Then I will," the doctor bear said.

"Then it's decided, you two will accompany us to the UN summit at the end of the week, now Care Bears, go back to your caring missions, Take Care, Tenderheart, and Brave Heart will remain behind to help Empathy Bear get acquainted with her new home," True Heart said, closing the meeting. Tenderheart and Brave Heart told Take Care and Empathy to meet them at the training grounds shortly before they left, as the others all left to go back to their caring missions.

Empathy and Take Care were the last to leave and as they left, Empathy asked, "Take Care, what were you all talking about going to a UN summit?"

Take Care sighed, "You know what kind of state the world is in right?" Empathy nodded, sadly, her symbol taking on a sad expression, "well, we're afraid that if this extends to nuclear war, then the Care Bear Family will be caught in the crossfire. If we hope to stabilize the world, the summit at the end of the week is the best chance we'll have to settle the world's problems and prevent a nuclear war, if we can't. The world's political situation is getting worse every day, and if we can't solve the problem now, then we might never be able too." Take Care looked at empathy to see her eyes widening in shock and the expression of her symbol taking on one of fear.

"So you're saying, this is the last chance earth has for peace?" she said, in shock.

"Unfortunately yes, now come on, you need to get up to speed before the summit," Tale Care said. Before they could move on, Empathy hugged him from behind tightly and spoke up.

"Thank you for bringing me here Take Care, I promise I'll do my best to help you and your family bring world peace, so we can continue to help children care." Take Care felt himself blush as she hugged him. He smiled and took her by the hand.

"Well we'd better get you started on your training, come on."


	3. A Desperate Situation

Chapter 3: A Desperate Situation

_From Bright Heart's research notes: Wormhole: Wormholes are small distortions in the fabric of space that connect two otherwise very distant points in a way that allows them to be crossed between in a very short period of time. Wormholes are more common than most think but like black holes they are near impossible to see; only the largest wormholes are usually visible and it is these ones that can lead to the most distant systems. Most wormholes are located near stars or planets but the reason why is as of yet unknown._

For the past week, Take Care had been instructing Empathy Bear in the ways of being a Care Bear; he'd shown her how to look after kids and advise them, gotten her into good physical condition, but he'd made a strange discovery, Empathy couldn't perform a Care Bear Stare. The two had bonded significantly over that week, partly through the time they were spending together, but mostly because they couldn't hide their emotions from each other, Empathy owing to her ability and Take Care because Empathy's symbol kept showing her emotions.

As for Bright Heart Raccoon and Grumpy Bear, they were going through in tense physical training as they knew they'd have to be part of any mission to test out their devices so they'd have to be at least somewhat prepared to go into space. They were exhausted at the end of each day but they needed to be ready and to their credit, they were getting ready for this mission with an enthusiasm they hadn't had for a mission in years.

By then end of the week, they were as ready as they could be, and one hour before the summit, they piled into their vehicles. Noble Heart and True Heart in front of a Cloud Car with Take Care and Empathy in the back and Bright Heart and Grumpy Bear in their own car. All of them were nervous about how the meeting would go but they knew it would be necessary to keep the world in a state they could help it in.

The guards at the UN conference were as nervous as the rest of the world, there was a good chance this meeting would end badly. One of the guards was a bit jumpy and when he saw the moving clouds he panicked and was about to shoot, but his colleague stopped him.

"I know them, they're the Care Bears, they helped me when I was a kid and if they're here they might be able to help out here," he said.

"Are you sure?" the other guard asked.

"Trust me, besides at this point what do we have to lose?" He looked over to see them land in front of the door they were guarding. He waved to them.

At first they were all nervous about approaching the UN, but Grumpy recognized the guard who was waving.

"Jacob?" he said, he dashed forwards and Jacob crouched down to give the blue Care Bear a hug.

"Grumpy Bear! I didn't think I'd ever seen you again," the guard said.

"Me either," Grumpy released him, "but as much as much as I'd like to catch up, we're here on business."

"It's about the meeting isn't it," Jacob said.

"Yes it is," Noble Heart said, stepping forwards, "I don't think I need to say that we're all scared for what might happen to the world so we're here to try and see if we can help to resolve these problems." Jacob nodded but shot a glance at his partner, telling him not to overreact.

"Right, well I must tell you that going in there is likely to cause a stir, and without knowing what they're thinking it will be hard to keep them calm."

"Umm, I think I can help with that," Empathy Bear stepped forwards, with Take Care's hand on her shoulder, "I can sense emotions, in people so I can help tell what people are thinking."

"That's quite a talent you've got," Jacob said, "Now follow me, with any luck you'll be able to at least get them to listen to you." Jacob led the six of them through the corridors of the UN building. They arrived at the doors leading to the assembly room and everyone turned to Empathy Bear.

"Can you tell us what's going on in there?" True Heart asked. They could hear the various comments and shouting but they needed to truth and only Empathy could provide that. Empathy closed her eyes and "listened" to the emotions on the other side of the door, screening out the emotions of those near her.

"Tensions are running high, that's for sure," she said, "it's hard to get all the emotions from each person separate from each other, but something bad is going to happen soon if we don't intervene."

If any of the six Care Bear family members had had doubts about their potential involvement here, Empathy's statement dashed them.

"Are you all ready?" Noble Heart asked. Every one of them said yes, it was now or never. Jacob nodded and opened the door to the large assembly room.

Suffice to say, no one was expecting the arrival of the Care Bears at the UN summit and at first no one wanted to listen to them. It took some time but with a little luck they were able to convince them to at least listen. With Empathy's special talent they were able to notice who would listen to them and who would be resistant and keep things calm enough to allow them to speak their piece. Suffice to say it was an excruciating task but through some miracle the six members of the Care Bear family managed to wear them down to the point that they agreed to let Bright Heart and Grumpy Bear try their inventions and gave them one month to prepare themselves for the mission and so they could work with technicians to get a spaceship ready for this mission and undergo the rest of the physical training they needed so they would be fully prepared for the mission into space. It was more than they could have hoped for, since they were being a chance at all.

As soon as the meeting finished, Bright Heart and Grumpy returned to their workshop and retrieved their brainchildren before taking them to the space center in Europe, the most neutral place they could get their machine ready. Meanwhile other crewmen were being assembled from six other nations, America, Russia, China, Japan, France, and Germany, so that the two members of the Care Bear Family would have a competent support crew; the decision to have one member from each of these six nations, which were considered to be those most powerful at this point in time, was to make sure that none of them would have the advantage of knowing about this new technology first and to help foster relationships between these countries.

With only a month left, and little else to do, Take Care requested that he be given time off to help Empathy become better adjusted and prepared for her own roles in the Care Bear Family. Noble Heart and True Heart agreed immediately for they could see the growing romance between them and for all they knew there might only be a month before they would not have any time to spend together again. As Empathy went through her training, both physical and mental preparation for caring missions, she also became set on the idea of being a councilor for the Care Bear Family. Since Take Care lived in the clinic where he looked after sick and injured members of the CBF he just asked her to move in with him and converted one of his exam rooms into a councilor's office with help form other members of the Care Bear Family. Grams was able to, using notes that Bright Heart had brought together, sew a special outfit for Emapthy Bear which would not show her symbol when she put it on, allowing her to remain impartial during counseling sessions.

As for the relationship between Take Care and Empathy, even while Take Care trained her they were growing closer, especially since both of them knew the others feelings for them. However even knowing these feelings didn't make their relationship any easier, especially since Take Care could only see the expressions of Empathy's strongest emotion on her symbol and couldn't be sure if she did feel the same way about him or if her nervousness was the same as her nervousness around others. One day, after her lessons were all but complete, a mere 4 days from the launch of the first ship that would potentially travel a distance that no human, or care bear for that matter, had been able to before, Take Care decided to see if she did really feel the same way about him that he felt about her.

"Well I think you're done, and I mean completely, you are now ready to assume full duty as a member of the Care Bear family," Take Care said to empathy as they left his home, where he had been teaching her.

"Really, that's wonderful," Empathy said.

"I think we should celebrate, it's almost supper time, how about I take you out for dinner?" Take Care suggested.

"Oh," Empathy blushed deeply, as did her symbol, "I would like that. But where would we go?"

"I know a good restaurant down on earth and I've been wanting to take you there for some time," he admitted, taking her hand, "shall we?"

"Yes, let's," she said, blushing.

Both of them dressed up slightly for the occasion, nothing so formal but better dressed then they normally were and then went down to earth. The ride was passed in silence and they landed in the parking lot of a restaurant called Melrose Place. Upon entering they found there were a few fish tanks around for decoration. They were seated by server who gave them an odd look before seating them.

"This is a nice place, where did you find it?" Empathy asked.

"I found it on a recent caring mission, I checked it out after I was done and found it to be nice and I thought," he blushed slightly, "it would be a good place to take a girl I'm in love with."

"Oh, Take Care," she said, smiling, "I know how you feel, but why didn't you ever tell me?"

"Well, ever with that expressive star on your tummy, I wasn't sure you felt the same way about me."

"Of course I do," she said, taking his hand, "I love you Take Care, you've been here helping me since day one and I don't think I could ever feel love for anyone but you." They both leaned forwards and kissed, then sat back. At that point a server came with their menus and they ordered. They ate in silence mostly, both feeling the happiness coming form each other, even without empathic abilities on Take Care's part.

After they ate and paid for their food they took the cloud car to a nearby park and took a stroll along the lake as the sun was setting.

"It's so beautiful," Empathy said, as the stars and moon came out.

"It is beautiful, but not as much as you are," Take Care said, putting his arm around her. She blushed and turned to him putting her arms around him.

"Oh, Take Care, that's so sweet," she said, blushing and moving closer.

"Thank you," he said, and they kissed, deeply.

Four days later the were standing in the space center with most of the Care Bear Family and watching as the spaceship with Bright Heart and Grumpy onboard heading to the edge of the solar system. The speed of space travel had greatly enhanced over the recent years and reaching the edge of the solar system was now only a matter of hours. They watched, via one of the ship's cameras, as the jump buoy was deployed and moved out to the point where it contacted the wormhole and opened up, activating it's systems.

"So far so good," Bright Heart's voice came through the comm. System.

"Now all we need to do is get the drive ready, everyone stand by," Grumpy said. Everyone waited with bated breath as the drive warmed up. Take Care held his girlfriend close as this occurred.

"I love you Take Care," Emapthy said.

"I love you too, Empathy," Take Care said. The two lovers shared a passionate kiss just as the ship's signal was lost.


	4. Rekindling

Chapter 4: Rekindling

_Today we celebrate the 10__th__ anniversary of the peace that the Care Bear Family helped create. With the successful testing of Bright Heart Raccoon and Grumpy Bear's jump drive, people have begun to explore the stars. Today we received word that a new jump point has been discovered in Alpha Centauri that leads to a new system. More reports will come as we receive them from the exploration. As we wait on such reports let us all give thanks to the Care Bear Family for helping bring about this peace that we enjoy today._

True Heart switched the TV off and lifted her glass of iced tea, "To our Care Bear Family and the peace we've all helped create," she said. Noble Heart smiled and raised his glass to the toast True Heart had made. The both drank deeply and set their glasses down next to the empty plates that they had just eaten off of while waiting for eh news report. The two of them were having this dinner together as it was the 10th anniversary of the day that Grumpy and Bright Heart's invention had created the peace that the world now enjoyed. The world's nuclear weapons had been gutted to help create the star ships that humans now used for exploration and the Care Bear Family, while still on active duty, were no longer swamped with missions every day and actually had time to spend on more personal things. Among such personal things were their relationships with one another and this dinner between the founders was more than just a celebration of this peace, it was a chance for them to renew a relationship they had long ago put on the back burner for more important things.

"Thanks for coming over for dinner, True Heart," Noble Heart said.

"It was my pleasure," True Heart smiled back, "How long has it been since we've been able to have a nice dinner together?"

"Years," Noble Heart replied, getting up to take the dishes to the kitchen to wash them. True Heart got up with him to help him do the dishes.

"So, now we finally are back to how things should be," the horse said, filling up the sink.

"Yes, and everyone is happier for it." The two of them began to wash the dishes and as they washed them, they began to talk about things.

"Our family has changed a lot over the years hasn't it," True Heart said, taking one of the plates Noble Heart had cleaned and drying it.

"That's true," Noble Heart said, "Ever since we've had more time on our hands we've been able to find all the cubs we were unable to find back when we started our mission. Now the Care Bear family has more than tripled in size in the past few years."

"They have been a very big help, even with more than half of earth's population in space, we still have as many missions as ever but with the family so large we're no longer working ourselves to the bone jus to keep up with all those who need help," True Heart said. "And then there's that strange thing the Great Wishing Star did to help a couple dozen years ago." As True Heart said this, she placed her hand on her chest, specifically on her shirt where her breasts were. Noble Heart knew to what she was referring, it had happened about 26 years ago over the course of a year the entire Care Bear Family had gone through a series of physical changes. They had all grown much taller than they use to be, with most of them being around 3 feet in height and now on average they were all about 4 feet and 3 inches in height, though some were as tall as 5 feet and a couple were as short as 3 and a half feet. Another more prominent thing was they had become more, anatomically correct which meant they were all forced to wear clothes now, not that it was a big deal but initially some of them had complained about how itchy the clothes were on their fur; only Cozy Heart was an exception to this as she was still decent at all times, and her unique body shape made it near impossible for her to wear clothes in the first place.

At one point, Noble Heart and True Heart had gone to ask the Great Wishing Star why he had done this and he had explained it was to make their appearance a bit more suitable for adults to see them, both on a height and appearance level, as they would likely be helping adults soon. Also he had explained that he had seen that several members of the family were starting to have feelings for each other, and the changes would help if any new cubs were brought into the family.

The two of them were able to finish cleaning the dishes. Noble Heart smiled at True Heart and moved closer, taking her hand in his.

"Finally, we have some personal time together," he said.

"Yes, my love, so why did you want to have me over tonight?" True Heart asked.

"I wanted to ask you to move back in with me," Noble Heart said, as they walked into the living room, "more than that, I wanted to renew our vows. It's been so long since we were married that I think we should." True Heart smiled, leaned over and kissed her husband.

"That's sounds great, Noble Heart, let's do it," The two of them exited to the deck and under the lighting from the setting sun they did as they planned renewing their vows and kissing as the sun vanished over the horizon. They had been married since before the family was formed but raising the cubs and these recent hectic years had forced them to live apart. Now with peace at last at hand, they were free to live together and maybe ever start a family of their own. Once they were done, True Heart sat down and Noble Heart entered the house to get his guitar, he returned to the porch, sat down, and began to play.

True Heart sat back and closed her eyes, listening as Noble Heart serenaded her on his guitar. He had first done this when they were both young and just starting to be in love. Noble Heart had taken a chance to go to a nearby town to get his hands onto a guitar and lessons. It was part of why True Heart had fallen for him. He had been reckless, that was true, but to go the such great lengths and to be able to play so well, she had admired his bravery and the results. She moved over closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder. The horse smiled but continued his song, one he had played long ago shortly after he had learned to play for her. The song didn't have a name that either of them knew, but it was their song.

"Thank you, Noble Heart, you're still as good as you ever were," True Heart said, drinking in his music as he played. Right now she was happier than she'd been in years, the world was at peace and she was with her beloved, playing a song on his guitar that he'd played for her so long ago.

Noble Heart was happy too, he had kept practicing whenever he had a spare moment, which wasn't often in preparation for this day, when he and True Heart could really be together again. Maybe they could even start a family together soon.


End file.
